Notes: Apologies for being very late with an update. This chapter was a struggle to write for a few reasons, mainly the beginning. I kept trying to blend old drafts with new stuff to make it work and finally I decided on something that I hope worked out. The second half of this chapter was a new idea that I never saw coming but still ran with once it hit. Therefore this one took a lot of editing to get it the way I felt it should be.

There is a warning: some of the content may be disturbing to some readers. If you've followed this story, it's along the same lines of the other chapters with a warning. So you've been warned.

Now time to read. Hope you like it!


Waking with a soft yawn, Dean realized he was still somewhat spooning Manda even though she was now more twisted on her back than her side. They were still a bit entangled, and not wanting to wake her if she was asleep, he took a moment to listen to her breathing. Figuring by the sound of it she wasn't awake yet, he carefully slid his arm out from beneath the pillow under her head and let go of her. He sat up, and when it was clear his movement still hadn't caused her to stir, he stretched and then turned his head to get a look at her.

Head turned away from him with her cheek pressed into the pillow, she was obviously sound asleep. As his eyes went from her face to her stomach and back again, he was thankful she was. While he knew nothing much about being pregnant, he was pretty sure both she and the baby needed a hell of lot more sleep than she was getting lately thanks to Zachariah.

Dean knew he hadn't been able to sleep much after the nightmare they'd shared. He had tried closing his eyes after they had talked about it, but the things angel had done to her and their unborn child and even worse images had kept running through his head. Though, he knew after all that sleep had still somehow taken a hold of Manda quickly, but he also knew it had been short-lived.

He'd been laying there with her, thinking of the ways she might die, thinking of that little girl Zachariah had said was their daughter, trying to figure out how to save them, when about an hour after she'd fallen asleep he first felt her slowly slip out from under his arm. She had tried not to disturb him, but twice she had left him, the bed, and the room. Having heard the bathroom door click shut down the hall after she'd left, he'd lain there awake both times waiting until she slipped back into bed beside him again. The second time he heard her go downstairs afterwards, and with the stress she was under as well as having had Castiel zap her home and back earlier, he worried something was wrong. Fifteen minutes later and being on the verge of getting up to go check on her, she had quietly come back and got into bed. Letting her know he was awake then, he'd made sure she was okay before holding her as close as possible again, letting her feel at ease in his arms. It had taken awhile, but once her breathing had deepened and he knew she'd hit a heavy slumber, he had finally closed his eyes and gave in to his own exhaustion.

Now it was a little after dawn as far as he could tell without glancing at his watch, and he was awake and nowhere near ready for what lay ahead for the day. Taking another look at the pregnant hunter beside him, he brushed some of her hair off her face to behind her ear, leaned down and softly pressed his lips to her temple. Then he lied down again on his back, sighing heavily as he closed his eyes again, wanting so badly to delay the inevitable today.

Hours from now, against every instinct in him, Dean knew he was going to have to leave Bobby's without Manda. It wasn't fair and it wasn't right, and he didn't know exactly how the hell he was going to walk away, leave her alone, or let her fend off threats from all sides while pregnant by herself. Guilt hit hard as he thought about how she might have already spent the last few months and how she might actually spend the next however many more. Right now she was only about halfway through her pregnancy, and it went without saying the next half of it wasn't going to get any easier or make her any less vulnerable. There wasn't much time left before she wouldn't be able to fight Zachariah if he caught up to her, or if more demons did. Other hunters might not be so quick to harm her in her current state, but he wasn't stupid enough to think they wouldn't hurt her if they had to. Manda really was, in his opinion, screwed at every turn here, and it also meant so was their daughter.

Dean opened his eyes, turned his head slightly to glance down at her swollen belly again, thinking of the little girl Zachariah had presented them with as being their daughter. He glanced towards Manda and then back at the emerging bump of pregnancy. Turning more on his side, he just stared at the spot where his unborn daughter resided inside of her mother, thinking again of the two most likely outcomes – either Manda wouldn't make it through the next few months and his daughter wouldn't be born or that he wouldn't be alive to meet her once she was. Neither was an outcome he wanted, but if it had to be one of them, then the latter was the one he'd be fine with.

Reaching out then, he gently curled his hand over Manda's stomach. Lightly, he rubbed his hand a little back and forth and then just let it rest there again. Hey, kid… it's… uh… it's me, your dad, he thought, and then shook his head. He felt like complete fool, trying to mentally converse with his child who couldn't hear his thoughts anymore than her mother could right now. And knowing if Manda had stirred yet, she wouldn't, what he needed to do now wasn't likely to wake her either.

He propped himself up on his elbow, leaning in a little closer over the female hunter and more towards her stomach, and then resumed the soft rubbing motion, trying to connect in some way with their baby again.

"Hey, kid," the whisper passed through Dean's lips this time. "I'm your dad and there's a few things I need to tell you in case I… well, in case there's not another chance for me to. So I hope you hear this… somehow." His voice was low and soft, and the emotions he felt were flooding through him. Pausing, he let out a quiet sigh. "See, you're a Winchester, and you gotta know that's trouble on the best of days. There's no easy way around it either. It means there are times you're going to have to fight like hell and keep going even when you don't want to. That's just how it is for us. Looks like that's how it is for the Chambers side of you, too. And it's a raw deal, baby. Trust me, it's not the one I wish for you. Because some days it'll hurt like hell to do it, but you push through all that, keep getting up and keep kicking ass. That's the hunter way, the Winchester way, hell, the Chambers way. And I hope you don't end up in that life, sweetheart. But if you do, then you should know that raw deal isn't so raw in some ways when on both sides of your family you come from a couple lines of the best damn hunters out there."

A sleepy sigh escaped from Manda as her head turned towards him then. His hand froze where it was, and he waited, wondering if maybe she'd woken and had heard everything he'd just said.

As he waited, watching her sleep, Dean couldn't help but think of what he'd learned over the past few months. How in that trip back to 1978 and the little chat with Michael he had been told free will was an illusion. That everything he thought he'd chosen to do hadn't in fact been his choice. That millions of choices had still brought him to this current situation, and all along the way, a little closer towards what was his supposed destiny. He couldn't help but wonder if it had it been that way with Manda. Had they only met just to wind up right here? Because it wasn't like Dean had ever been a monk. He'd slept with more women than he could remember at this point. And he had never been a saint either. He'd left a whole lot of women before dawn, skipped out of towns without a goodbye to countless more, and almost never looked back either. There were only a few women out there that had ever gotten under his skin, and even fewer than that had ever gotten into his heart.

But this one. Oh, this one was a woman who was a lot like him, lived his kind of life, and had even been shaped for it. She was a hunter through and through. And it just figured that a female hunter would end up being the one to bear his child, didn't it? It couldn't have been a random chick he didn't care about. It couldn't have been some woman he'd only ever spent a night with. And it definitely couldn't have been a clueless girl who didn't even know monsters actually existed. No, Dean knew he couldn't have had it that easy. It had to be another hunter. It had to be one of the few women out there he'd actually fallen for. And of course it had to be the one that was also his soul mate.

He figured in the end fate might have been what brought them together, that maybe their child's existence was solely the reason why they were even here right now, but as he looked at Manda, the how and the why didn't matter one damn to him at all anymore. He loved her, and that was the only that mattered. He tried so hard to bury it down somewhere deep inside him most days, but that love was right up at the surface as he looked at her and thought again about the child they were having.

Manda's cheek pressed deeper into the pillow then. It was obvious to him she was still sound asleep, so he let his hand resume softly sweeping back and forth over her stomach.

"So I, uh… I know what I said to your mom, but you need to know I'm gonna do whatever it takes to protect you and her, okay? Because I want you to have what I didn't. I want you to have your mom around a lot longer than I got to have mine. But that means I…I…" Dean trailed off, closing his eyes as he thought about how to say what needed to be said. "I might not get to be around instead... So if I'm not there for you, I'm sorry for that, baby."

A tear streaked down his cheek then. The heartache in this admission hurt. He ached to put it somewhere so deep down he couldn't feel it, but there just wasn't any place deep enough in him where he wouldn't feel it. "But saving you and your mom… I'd never be sorry for that. You're my family, I love you," he said, the emotion coming through in his voice.

Dean stopped rubbing Manda's stomach then. He let his hand linger where it was for a moment, only his thumb grazed back and forth gently. Looking at Manda, he leaned in and gave her a light kiss on the cheek, and then got out of bed with an idea on how to look after both mother and daughter now in his mind.

[ - ]

Dreaming of pushing her little girl on a swing in a playground, Manda smiled as she watched the toddler hang on to the chains with a white-knuckled grip but still kick her feet and giggle while asking to be pushed higher.

"Hmm. I guessed you'd be dreaming of family life now, Manda, but something appears to be missing from this picture," Zachariah said, suddenly standing beside her. "Whatever could it be?" he asked, looking around. "Ah, now that's it. One dead-beat daddy clearly not present. So where exactly is Dean in this equation?" the angel asked, turning his head to look at the female hunter with a devious grin. "Making sandcastles in the sandbox?"

"Mommy?"

Securely gripping the swing's chains now, Manda watched as her daughter tilted her head back and looked up at her curiously, wondering why the swing had come to a sudden stop. She leaned down and gave the child a kiss on the forehead. "It's okay, honey. Promise," she softly whispered to assure her. She saw the toddler's wide grin, and smiled in return before briefly closing her eyes. Not even a second later the swing was empty. She'd managed to just remove her daughter from this dream now even though she knew Zachariah was capable of bringing her back into it at any moment. "Dean's hunting… where else would he be? Nobody said he had to stop being a hunter once he became a dad. So maybe he's close to tracking you down right now… or maybe he already did that and you're so long gone by this point that that's why my daughter was able to have playtime in a world that's still spinning." She let go of the swing's chains and flashed him a smirk that told him exactly where he could go.

The angel scoffed at her answer, but then lifted a brow at her as he took in the empty swing. "Well aren't you full of surprises? But unlike that soul mate of yours, you've always been a smart cookie. Even managed to hold on to that perfect GPA after you got Mom and Dad killed instead of dropping out and barely passing the GED test. So that means Dean might be too slow to realize it, Manda, but you're up to something," he uttered. He walked around to the other side of the swing then, giving her a questioning glare as he tried to pinpoint what it was she was hiding. "Just can't put my finger on what that might be yet. Care to confess or are you still going to make us do this the hard way? Because you know I enjoy the hard way, but just how much more can you and that pitiable spawn you're carrying take, kiddo?"

She suppressed the cringe she nearly let escape. The angel was expecting it, he sure as hell was digging for it by pressing all the right buttons, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction. She couldn't. "Sure… spoiler – I've been planning my own baby shower. Hope you're not expecting an invitation, unless you're open to having an angel blade shoved somewhere unpleasant? So if you're okay with just giving us a gift instead, well, you leaving us the hell alone would be the only one I'd accept."

"Ouch. But we've become so close. So close that I thought you were going to make me your little girl's godfather." Zachariah snapped his fingers and then the toddler appeared back on the swing facing Manda this time. He placed a hand on the child's head. "Because who better than an angel like me to look after this precious child if something were to happen to you? Certainly you don't have that useless third wheel Bobby Singer or my brother turned traitor Castiel in mind for the job?"

Her daughter kicked her feet and smiled up at her then. A cold expression crossed Manda's face as she glared back across at the angel. "Looking to defy your dead-beat daddy's plans, Zachariah? And here I thought you were just a dick with no balls."

"Tsk. Mind your temper and the vulgar language, Manda. There's a child present, yours… and a soldier of heaven who wouldn't mind ripping out that lewd tongue and feeding it back to you just to teach you some respect," the angel loudly snarled with anger. He found her attitude as loathsome as Dean's, and somehow both hunters were quickly able to irritate him beyond belief. He took a moment to playfully tousle the little girl's hair, and composed himself by staring at the female hunter with an impassive expression instead. "Now let's not pretend we both don't know my father's no longer calling the shots. But let's say for the sake of this snot-nosed brat's life, I make you a once in an apocalypse offer?"

Manda shook her head, keeping her eyes focused on the angel's hand still on top of her child's head. She was aching to protect her little girl, to just grab her and run, but she had to keep reminding herself this was just a dream. "If it's the one for whatever I want for the next few years in exchange for my soul, I've heard that one before. Can't say that it's any more tempting coming from up above than it was from down below. So no thanks, I'll pass."

Shaking a finger at her then, Zachariah looked at her with a slightly amused look. He saw a flash of both fear and fierceness in her eyes as he moved his other hand onto her daughter's shoulder. "Sure? You haven't heard the pitch yet… but consider me insulted. Do I look like one of those spineless low hanging fruit salesmen? It's not like I have any use for your soul, Manda. While I wouldn't mind letting you through the pearly gates like the majority of you hunters get to do, that's not really my department. But you do have something, well, someone useful to me, and that is my department."

"Dean," she uttered, not missing a beat.

"Yes, Dean, and well…" Zachariah crouched down and whispered in the child's ear then.

She heard her daughter laugh, and then watched as the toddler jumped off the swing and ran towards a nearby slide. She had no idea what the angel had whispered to her little girl or what else he meant by that, but she feared it now as Zachariah stood back up and looked at her. She ignored him and continued to watch her daughter in the distance. Her eyes clouded with tears. A big part of her now worried he somehow found her child more useful alive instead of dead. "What's the pitch?" she asked, almost not believing she was actually asking to hear it.

"Finally, we appear to be getting somewhere." The angel let out a small chuckle, a pleased grin crossed his lips for a split second. "The pitch is simple. You've known it all along. Turn Dean over to me, or at least convince him to say yes, and not only do I promise to leave you and your daughter alone, you'll both remain alive and well… as long as Michael wins the apocalypse that is. If Lucifer wins…" Zachariah let out a sharp whistle. "My hands are tied. I'm sure you understand any heavenly agreement will be null and void."

Silent, Manda tipped her head to the side, thinking things over. Her gaze never wavered from her child. The angel's offer was simple, and yet nowhere near simple to her at all.

Zachariah turned his head and waved to the toddler who had just hopped off the end of the slide and was now running back towards them with a big smile. "Don't turn him over or at least get him to say yes and…" he broke off, and simply pointed at the little girl.

Manda whimpered, feeling her heart shatter into a million pieces as she watched her daughter's head twist unnaturally before she fell and lay lifelessly on the ground. Tears escaped as she closed her eyes. "You goddamn son of a bitch," she yelled with hatred. "Bring her back now, you evil bastard! Then you better leave my baby the hell alone or I swear with everything in me you'll be praying for your father's mercy before you get your friggin' apocalypse." Her tone was just as hard and cold as the look on her face then. "Because I promise you this, Zachariah, heaven, never mind hell, hath no fury like a woman in my shoes if you don't."

"Hmm..." Zachariah considered her threat for a moment. A small part of him wondered just what lengths Manda would go to because he really didn't need to read her mind to figure out she definitely meant it. He'd seen the flicker of something purely reckless and feral in her eyes for a second. Still, he brushed it off. Even if she was a hunter, one with an angel blade that could kill him no less, she was still merely a human and he wasn't. He wouldn't fight fair, so he smirked as he mocked swiping his finger at her, and then began to chuckle as it dawned on her that he'd just erased her mouth from her face. "Not so threatening now. I told you to mind your tongue, you foul, snivelling, insignificant…" he broke off as he noticed her eyes widening at something in the distance. Turning his head, he saw that her child's body was nowhere to be found. Surprise took over on his face before a hint of worry replaced it. He was thinking now that maybe he had underestimated her just a little. Turning back to glare at Manda with suspicion, he snapped his fingers to let her mouth reappear again. "Okay, Manda, now I'm impressed. Just how the heck do you keep pulling off these cheap parlour tricks?"

"Oh, that wasn't me this time," she replied, lying through her teeth now. The love for and the need to protect her baby had been enough to gain control in the moment the angel slipped his focus onto her instead. "See, maybe you're just pissing off God now. He's the one who made sure I pulled through that night, right? Seems like my little girl's existence might be why. Hell, she's even survived bad odds already. So, do you care to wager against your father and his plans? Because if Lucifer's anything to go by, well… looks like he's not so forgiving of disobedient children."

Eyeing her with one severe look, anger filled him as the angel shook his head. "God doesn't give the tip of a tail on rat's ass about any of you or haven't you noticed?" he snapped in return.

Manda shrugged, stared him straight in the eyes, and stood her ground. "Someone gives a damn about me and my child. We've made it this far. So if your bosses don't care, and hell's finest clearly don't either, then that leaves who?"

"That was luck, not God," he replied after a lengthy pause. Part of him was somewhat worried now by how right she might be. The other part of him just didn't see why or how it could be that his father cared about her or her child at all. He knew God was the one who had brought her back, but not one angel out there was sure why he had bothered to.

"Or maybe it's just that daddy dearest got tired of your bull and doesn't give one crap about any of his soldiers anymore," she shot back in a harsh tone.

"Then it's not like he'll stop me or keep you alive again, is it?" Zachariah locked eyes with her and grinned. He was about to have a little more fun now.

"Mommy, Uncle Zach said I can say yes if Daddy's doesn't." The toddler's voice said in a sweet and calm tone.
Manda felt tugging on her pant leg near the knee. She looked down to see her daughter was there and looking up at her. It caught her off guard and her eyes widened with horror at the very thought of what she'd just heard that little girl say. It couldn't be true.

"You weren't kidding, God obviously had a plan. Looks like his punch line for yours is that one Winchester's just as good as the next," the angel stated, a hint of gloating in his voice. "Maybe that's why your child exists. Because do you really think my father didn't know the loopholes? That he wasn't aware Dean's spawn could fill his shoes if he said no? In any case, we'll still have to take her from your womb and age her by a few more years just to get the paperwork on her saying yes straight. But genetics are genetics, kiddo, and a Winchester's still a Winchester. We need one, and like it or not, she'll do."

"Not a chance in hell," Manda harshly gritted out through her teeth. She put her hand out and felt her daughter slip her smaller one into it instantly. She stared at the angel with a venomous look. "Much like you ever getting to actually lay a hand on her, over my dead body does my daughter ever say yes to being Michael's goddamn vessel."

"That can easily be arranged," the angel chuckled. "But what I'm really hearing here is that you're doubtful of our deal being upheld on my end. So as an act of good faith, I'm going to give you a few days to think it over, Manda. Don't think too hard, though. Dean's already past his life expectancy while your daughter's not even born yet. Still, I'll let you choose which one gets to host Michael and which one doesn't. If you want my opinion, at least your soul mate's already prepared for the task, not to mention the battle. This little girl on the other hand… hmm, you know as well as I do that she's not even close to it." Zachariah waved at the toddler before grinning cruelly at the female hunter. "See you in a few days…"

Damn! Now what the hell do I do? Manda thought just as the angel disappeared. Feeling the small hand in hers squeeze a little then, she looked down to see her daughter staring back at up her with curious look.

"Can I say yes, Mommy?" the toddler asked quietly.

"No, baby girl, not to that," she said, her voice breaking. She crouched down, cupped her daughter's face, swiftly kissed her on the forehead, and then hugged her tightly. Silent tears dropped from both her eyes. "As long as I'm still breathing, you will never say yes to that, okay?"

The toddler nodded, tightly hugging her mother back.

Manda woke a moment later still feeling the warmth of just having had her child in her arms and to Dean's hand splayed firmly over her stomach, his fingers grazing softly back and forth. The tears streaked down her face for real then.


Notes: The first half of this chapter failed to make itself clear to me other than knowing Dean needed a moment to think about a few things and prepare himself to let Manda and the child he may never know go. It seemed fitting that he got a bit of time to kind of connect/bond with his daughter in his own way. Working out how he could that wasn't easy, so fingers crossed that Dean didn't come off as too soft and stayed mostly in line for how he might be in this situation. But what did he go and do at the end of his part there?

Now the second half – Zachariah (who is totally fun to write, by the way, and I really hope I'm not butchering when doing so) paying Manda yet another fun dream visit. This was somewhere I never saw this story going in the original draft and outline. But this many years later this story has taken twists and turns while trying to finish it, and once Zachariah made his appearance, well why not also have Dean's daughter be considered as being a substitute vessel for Michael? Hopefully things worked out here because upping the stakes and Manda's despair seemed the route to go. Will she betray Dean? She listened to Zachariah's pitch after all. Do you think she could do that to him? Or will she finally fess up, or just stick to her plan?

I wanted this chapter to have a third part to it, but it's just not there. It was also supposed to get them a little closer to going their separate ways as well. But that's the aim for the next chapter, and you know it's coming. So this story is getting longer and longer, but so what? It'll be as however long it is once it is finally done!

As always, thanks for stopping by and reading!